By Babatunde Jose
In the Islamic representation, the Quran is the scripture containing the revelations received by Muhammad and later preserved in a fixed, written form. The majority view among Muslim authorities is that Quran, an Arabic verbal noun, comes from qara a, ‘to recite’, ‘to declaim’, ‘to read aloud’. Some Western scholars, however, think that it is derived from the Syriac qeryana (reading, scripture, and lectionary). That the origin of the word is not Arabic seems to be confirmed by the interpretation given by an ancient exegete of Jewish origin, Abu Ubayda (d.824–5), who understands what could have been the first revelation delivered by Muhammad: iqra bismi rabbika, Quran 96:1; which the majority of the exegetes understand as ‘Read/recite: in the name of your lord’), as ‘Proclaim/Call upon the name of your lord’ (cf. Hebrew: qra bshem adonai; Syriac: qra b-shem marya).
In the centuries after the life of the prophet, Muslims developed a whole science, called asbab al-nuzul or ‘occasions of the revelation’, whose goal was to identify the historical context of Quranic passages. In general terms, Muslim scholars categorized each surah as being either ‘Meccan’ or ‘Medinan’; depending on when they thought it was revealed. They also strove to define much more precisely the exact moment in Muhammad’s life during which each Quranic verse or passage had been revealed. The Quran and Muhammad’s prophetic experience are very closely linked. Often the text responds explicitly to Muhammad’s historical situation and even sometimes to his domestic problems.
The underlying implication is that knowing the context in which a verse was revealed will tell us something important about how to understand the verse. What specific situation in the Prophet’s life was it revealed to address? So, for example, Quran 8 (Surat al-Anfal, ‘The Spoils’) was said by exegetes to have been revealed immediately after the Battle of Badr, to deal with the questions raised by the booty seized in that battle.
The famous verse 3 in Quran 4 (Surat al-Nisa ‘The Women’), which allows Muslims to take up to four wives, is related to the aftermath of the Battle of Uhud, when the heavy losses among the men left many women orphaned or widowed. Quran 2(Surat al-Baqara, ‘The Cow’), verses 142–5, comment on the change of direction from Jerusalem to Mecca and verses 11–20 of Quran 24 (Surat al-Nur, ‘Light’) are said to address the scandalous rumors circulated by some of the‘ hypocrites’ against Muhammad’s wife Aisha. The biographical information provided is thus intimately tied to the text of the Quran itself.
The early exegetes placed one apparently aggressive verse firmly in its historical context, explaining that it was revealed during the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, when Muslims were commanded thus: Do not commit aggression [wa la ta tadu](Quran 2:190). Kill them wherever you encounter them, and drive them out from where they drove you, for persecution is more serious than killing. Do not fight them in the Sacred Mosque unless they fight you there. If they do fight you, kill them – this is what such disbelievers deserve – but if they stop, then God is most forgiving and merciful. Fight them until there is no more persecution and worship is devoted to God. (Quran 2:191)
Far from seeing this verse as justifying aggressive warfare, the early exegetes insisted that it was obsolete because it applied only to the extraordinary circumstances at Hudaybiyyah.
Similarly, the Tanwir al-Miqbas or Tafsir Ibn Abbas interprets the verse ‘Fighting is ordained for you, though it is hard for you’ (Quran 2:216) as restricted to the time of Muhammad.
These early interpreters also contextualized the oft-quoted ‘Sword Verse’: ‘When the four “forbidden months” are over, wherever you encounter the idolaters [mushrikin], kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for them at every lookout post.’(Quran 9:5). This verse, critics claim approves the killing of non-Muslims anywhere at any-time. This is simply not true. This passage has always been quoted out of context. They never post other verses 9:1-14, for if they did, people would find out that it says the opposite of what they claim. For the sake of brevity, the reader is directed to peruse Quran 9:1–14. When we read from verse 1, it states that there was a treaty which the pagan Arabs broke. Thus, Allah in the Quran says, that He gave them four months. Verse 9:4 states that Allah will punish those who broke the treaty. This verse is only aimed at those who broke the treaty; it did not affect those who abided by the treaty. When we read the passage (9:5), it is evident it’s talking about a war with the pagan Arabs. This was a historical event that took place in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad. Furthermore, verse 9:13 provides proof that it was the pagans who started this war. The verse states, “Would you not fight a people who broke their oaths and determined to expel the Messenger, and they had begun to attack you first?” This is proof that Prophet Muhammad did not start this war, but it was those pagan Arabs that started to expel and fight the Messenger.
For the first 400 years of Islamic history, this verse, quoted so frequently today by critics of Islam, was seldom discussed. Those exegetes who did address it did so perfunctorily, explaining that the mushrikin referred to the Quraysh and that the verse was now irrelevant because there were no longer any Arab ‘idolaters’. It is worth noting that even the ferocious ‘Sword Verse’ ends with a call to reconciliation: 9:5. . . .But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. The full verse therefore, gives a different meaning to the so-called ‘Sword Verse’.
Today, terrorist atrocities committed in the name of Islam have led many people in the West to assume that the Quran is an inherently violent scripture and addicted to jihad, which, they believe, means ‘holy war’. In fact, jihad means ‘struggle’, ‘striving’ or endeavor’. Unfortunately, many forget that the God of the Old Testament is a God of war’ but spoke specifically to the exegesis of the time.
Many of the hadith that militarized the Quranic notion of jihad originated in imperial circles. Some of these claimed that fighting was the Sixth Pillar of Islam, since it was God’s way of spreading the faith, while others argued that fighting was far more precious in God’s sight than praying all night beside the Kaaba or fasting during Ramadan. They predicted that in paradise the martyr will wear silk clothes, drink wine and bask in the sexual delights he had forsaken when he joined the Umayyad army by being married to seventy-two of the women of paradise; these hadith were traditionally judged to be ‘weak’ but they have acquired special notoriety since Islam’s encounter with the West especially America and its role in the Middle East. In our next Sermon we will examine hadith in relation to the Quran.
This aggressive exegesis became more pronounced under the Abbasids, who defeated the Umayyads in 750 and moved the Muslim capital to Baghdad. The celebrated Abbasid jurist Muhammad Idris al-Shafii (d.820) formulated what would become the classical doctrine of jihad: humanity was divided into the Dar al-Islam (‘the Abode of Islam’) and the Dar al-Harb (‘the Abode of War’) and there could be no final peace between the two, though a temporary truce was permissible. The goal of jihad was not to convert the subject peoples, since the umma was only one of many divinely guided communities; its purpose was to extend the values of the Quran to the rest of humanity, liberating all peoples from the tyranny of states run on worldly principles. There is nothing to this effect in the Quran. This division of the world into two potentially hostile camps – the rulers and the ruled – is a typical imperialist ideology. It would become even more prominent in later centuries, when Muslims were surrounded by hostile enemies. It started with the Crusade (which essentially was a Christian Jihad), a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims, started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions occurred between 1096 and 1291. At the heart of the confrontation was the city of Jerusalem. It is still in contention today and forms a major issue in the Middle East imbroglio.
Barka Juma’at and Ramadan Kareem
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